What would a Brexit mean for business?

“THE BUSINESS community overall thinks
Mr Cameron has negotiated a good deal for
business, with important safeguards which
confirm that we want to remain in the
single market but not part of the euro zone,
without any discrimination. He also negotiated
good points around competitiveness,
which is key to our members, in particular
an agreement with other heads of state for
the EU to bring in specific targets to reduce
regulatory burdens. We’ve been pushing for
that and see it as a major step forward. The
area of regulation members raise most as an
issue is employment regulations such as the
working time directive, which we hope will
be looked at in the targets.
“However members tell us that when they
are designed EU regulations can help open
up markets. If you have a common market it
needs to be underpinned by common rules.
“Take EU rules on climate change – that’s
a cross-border problem, and the fact that
the rules apply to everyone equally helps
as opposed to one country applying such
rules alone and perhaps some businesses
losing out in competitiveness. One example
is the EU’s emissions trading system which
creates a market for reducing emissions
by companies. It means that wherever it’s
most economically efficient to make the
reductions across the whole of Europe, that’s
where they’ll be made.
“Also, were we to leave the reality is if we
wanted to sell into the EU market we would
still need to abide by those rules and would
lose the influence we have now over setting
them. There is potential for disruption
following the negotiations, which could
include further movements of the pound,
but it’s an unprecedented situation and
the long-term effect would depend on the
model adopted. It’s up to those campaigning
to leave to set out what option they advocate
that would enable us to keep as many
benefits as possible. The fact is, however, the
Norway option, which includes access to the
market, comes with accepting free movement
and Norway has higher EU migration
than the UK does. Those core freedoms are
interlinked.
“If we don’t have access that would be very
worrying because we’d see a return of tariffs.
And under all of the models the UK would
drop out of trade deals we currently have
with 50 other countries outside the EU and
we’d have to negotiate those from scratch.
“One thing that makes the UK most
attractive to foreign investment is the ability
to use the UK as a launch pad for markets in
the rest of the EU. It can’t be ruled out that
some firms will relocate to the continent,
or at least portions of their business – for
example some banks might move some jobs
to maintain their ability to passport financial
services around the single market.
“Regarding individual politicians, such
as Lon don mayor Boris Johnson, there are
many reasons people make up their minds,
business being one important one. However
95% of our members in London say access
to the single market is London’s greatest
strength as a business centre.”